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DeAndre Hopkins Declares

DeAndre Hopkins from Clemson is coming out. I'm not sure what the Dolphins think of Hopkins, but this bodes well for our chances to get an impact receiver in the 1st or 2nd round. With news that both Justin Hunter and Cordarrelle Patterson leaving, we could find ourselves in prime position for the WR we ultimately want. The more dynamic receivers coming out, the better the chance that one of them falls down the board to us.

I like DeAndre Hopkins' RAC ability, and he's definitely explosive. If you watch him against Tharold Simon of LSU in the bowl game, he completely owned him. Forget the stats from that game...13 catches for 191 and 2 tds. What impressed me is that he consistently dominated coverage from guys that will be playing on Sunday. I think his performance also has to be considered in light of the fact that he was the focal point of the offense and drew most of the defense's attention with Sammy Watkins out of the lineup, and Hopkins still dominated. The foot speed is elite, the short area burst is elite and he can create separation. He's got good size at 6'1 -6'2, 195-200 lbs. My biggest concerns are that I haven't seen much of him as a blocker...not asked to do too much of it at Clemson, and of course he needs to learn a pro-style offense route tree.

I was just watching some of his stuff tonight. I really like his body control and hands, feels like he's playing bigger than he is. If anyone hasn't seen it, the catch on the fade while being interfered with is great: http://youtu.be/OtgrDtt6D4Q?t=2m45s . Gotta love that stuff. Maybe it's just because I was 'spoiled' and went directly from watching Austin/Bailey to Cordarrelle Patterson to Hopkins, but it felt like comparatively his run after the catch ability was lacking. Maybe that's just because Austin and Patterson are freaks and I'm essentially comparing apples to a prime cut of steak (one is really solid in all aspects, the other is fantastic when done right but easily over/under cooked).

Right now I'm not sure if I'd value the stellar catching ability of Hopkins or crazy athleticism of Patterson more if I were given an ultimatum to select one. For whatever it's worth (probably not much), I find it interesting that out of Hopkin's 6 100+ yards games, 4 came (Auburn, Ball State, BC, and LSU) when Sammy Watkins was out.

I was just watching some of his stuff tonight. I really like his body control and hands, feels like he's playing bigger than he is. If anyone hasn't seen it, the catch on the fade while being interfered with is great: http://youtu.be/OtgrDtt6D4Q?t=2m45s . Gotta love that stuff. Maybe it's just because I was 'spoiled' and went directly from watching Austin/Bailey to Cordarrelle Patterson to Hopkins, but it felt like comparatively his run after the catch ability was lacking. Maybe that's just because Austin and Patterson are freaks and I'm essentially comparing apples to a prime cut of steak (one is really solid in all aspects, the other is fantastic when done right but easily over/under cooked).

Right now I'm not sure if I'd value the stellar catching ability of Hopkins or crazy athleticism of Patterson more if I were given an ultimatum to select one. For whatever it's worth (probably not much), I find it interesting that out of Hopkin's 6 100+ yards games, 4 came (Auburn, Ball State, BC, and LSU) when Sammy Watkins was out.

I like Hopkins a lot for many of the reasons you state. But the bottom line to me is I see him as a replacement to Brian Hartline, not necessarily an upgrade to Brian Hartline.

Some guys have stop ability, but fewer have stop AND start ability. Hopkins is a guy with quick feet and tremendous body control so he will be able to make himself available to the quarterback, toe tap the sidelines, run routes, etc. But he doesn't have burst and disciplined corners are going to be able to shadow him well. For all he was supposed to have had a good game against LSU, I thought he was mostly outmanned by the players that LSU had in the secondary. What he got off them had a lot more to do with their lapses in technique than it did what he was doing to them.

Whereas when Stedman Bailey played LSU in 2011, I felt like Stedman was actually doing things to Tharold Simon and Mo Claiborne that was making it very hard for them to do their jobs.

Everybody falls all over Petterson's athleticism but he's really not that awesome of a WR. DeAndre is a hell of a lot more polished than him at this point.

At that position, upside is important. Calvin Johnson wasn't really that polished either.

I liken Patterson to a Pierre Garcon except he's a better PROSPECT than Garcon because he's 3 inches taller and where Garcon never made it out of Mount Union, Patterson has signaled the NFL better because he came to the SEC and still made ridiculous plays.

I don't know if anyone's paying attention but Garcon has actually become an incredible wide receiver for the Redskins. His only problem this year was health. If he'd been healthy he could have easily had a 1400 yard season. He had an incredible 2.83 yards per pass snap.

Everybody falls all over Petterson's athleticism but he's really not that awesome of a WR. DeAndre is a hell of a lot more polished than him at this point.

Well that's the whole question with Barkevious Mingo too isn't it? To use my food analogy again, Patterson and Mingo are like wagyu beef, the material is fundamentally better. If you cook wagyu beef correctly, it's fantastic - some of the best out there. However, if you f**k it up, you just wasted a lot of money and you have a pretty terrible product. Hopkins is like a really solid burger. It's pretty hard to mess up hamburger, there's nothing wrong with it and it can taste very good. It's a personal preference on the choice of the evaluator and ultimately GM.

There are positions that I feel I'm more naturally lenient towards in terms of potential/ physical talent. Quarterback (Tyler Bray?) is not one of them, I like production there. Wide receiver is one of those where I'm more excited about that 'raw' potential. I'm not sure how I feel about it with defensive ends. Now none of that is based on anything other than a finely untuned instinct. But to each their own.

Except where I think you can explain Patterson's lack of receiving production by the fact that it was his first year out of JUCO and his first year learning the offense, it's a lot harder to explain Keke Mingo's lack of production and when you look really closely there's a lack of balance in him that is disturbing.

I mean just to give some perspective on what should be expected out of a player in Patterson's position only just having come out of JUCO, Derek Dooley said that he's never seen a player have that big of an impact in that short a span of time. And Dooley, of course, has followed Nick Saban around at multiple stops including with the Miami Dolphins.

Absolutely agree, even then with Patterson's 'lack of production', he's still at about 1/2 of Hopkins reception yardage throughout the year. Mingo's 4.5 sacks is only roughly 1/3rd of say, Bjoern Werner or Jarvis Jones' sack total. You get less relative production at his position with more experience from Mingo, which is why I'm skeptical but unsure about him. I was just using the "athletic" player label as a pretty crude analogy.

To your other point about Hatline, that's an interesting take. In my mind I had been comparing the routes that Terrance Williams mainly runs, the curls and outside deep routes to Hartline. Except of course Williams is longer with far worse body control (from what I've seen). So I'm not sure there's any real comparison at all - Hopkins makes a lot of sense (My player comparisons are far from accurate).

I see Terrance Williams as being a pretty decent prospect. You're right he doesn't have Hartline's body control, but it's not bad body control either IMO. He's got deep ability that Hartline does not have, IMO.

Well that's the whole question with Barkevious Mingo too isn't it? To use my food analogy again, Patterson and Mingo are like wagyu beef, the material is fundamentally better. If you cook wagyu beef correctly, it's fantastic - some of the best out there. However, if you f**k it up, you just wasted a lot of money and you have a pretty terrible product. Hopkins is like a really solid burger. It's pretty hard to mess up hamburger, there's nothing wrong with it and it can taste very good. It's a personal preference on the choice of the evaluator and ultimately GM.

There are positions that I feel I'm more naturally lenient towards in terms of potential/ physical talent. Quarterback (Tyler Bray?) is not one of them, I like production there. Wide receiver is one of those where I'm more excited about that 'raw' potential. I'm not sure how I feel about it with defensive ends. Now none of that is based on anything other than a finely untuned instinct. But to each their own.

At defensive end. Just think of the dolphins hadnt passed on Jason Pierre Paul in that draft because of his raw potential. We wouldn't be in this position looking for a guy to play opposite of cam wake. We would have the most dominating pass rush in football.